


Haunted

by bfketh



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Blood, Hallucinations, Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a happy ending out of my ass!, M/M, Psychological Horror, Supernatural Elements, Syn hates me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-26 22:36:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5023174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bfketh/pseuds/bfketh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started out innocently enough. A dare to stay one night in the local abandoned, rumored-to-be-haunted mansion. But after a freak accident that leaves Eren and Levi shaken but otherwise seemingly unharmed, Eren starts seeing Levi's face when he isn't around, or hearing his voice when there's no way Levi could be speaking. It's almost like Eren is being haunted by Levi's ghost, but how can he be when Levi is right there, alive and well?</p><p>Isn't he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Trepidation

**Author's Note:**

> My attempt at writing a spooky Halloween ereri story. (Okay, it takes place during the summer, but whatever.)

"I cannot believe you let Jean goad you into doing this. Spending all night in a haunted house; are you two twelve or something?" Levi grumbled as their feet creaked on the rickety staircase.

"Hey, you didn't have to come along you know."

"Yeah, like I'd let you wander around here by yourself."

"Aw, worried the ghosts will get me? Such a caring boyfriend." Eren laced his fingers into Levi's and bumped their shoulders together.

"More like worried you'll step in a hole like a dumbass and break your neck." Levi sighed and leaned against Eren. "I don't know how you're going to manage when I leave for college in the fall."

Eren gave his hand a squeeze, knowing Levi was talking about himself just as much as Eren. "It's just a year, and then I'll be there with you. Besides, Sina's only a two hour drive away; we'll still be able to see each other every weekend."

Levi hummed in response as they reached the top of the stairs. Eren's flashlight revealed a door to their left, slightly ajar. He pushed through it, tugging Levi with him.

The two boys found themselves in what must have been a bedroom, the moldering, empty frame of a bed still standing against one wall. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a full-length mirror in an oval stand. A huge window, more like a glass door, was set into the wall opposite them. Eren let go of Levi's hand and walked over to it to look outside. The window opened onto a small, step-out balcony with a wrought iron railing, suspended in the air over the forested ravine that ran behind the dilapidated house. Overhead, Eren could see the dark clouds roiling as they were illuminated by lightning still caged within them, the storm that had been threatening all day now moments from breaking out.

"Hey, Levi, looks like it's going to start raining soon. Do you think the roof in here leaks?"

There was no response.

"Levi...?" Eren turned to see the shorter boy standing in front of the mirror and staring into it as if transfixed. As Eren watched, Levi's hand slowly came up, reaching toward the glass.

There was a blinding flash of light, and Eren felt his entire body jolt.

And then, nothing but darkness.

**~~~~~**

Eren slowly fought his way back to consciousness, and then immediately regretted it. His entire body ached, and a sharp pain was blooming into life behind his temples. He must have groaned or moved, because immediately a warm hand was placed against his cheek.

“Eren? Eren, baby, are you awake?”

He slowly blinked his eyes open. A blurry figure was seated next to the bed he was in, resolving into a worried face framed by dark brown hair. “Mom? Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital. Jean found you and Levi unconscious this morning at the old Langnar estate. They think you were both hit by lightning, through the window.” Carla’s face hardened into a frown, and her hand moved from Eren’s cheek to pinch his ear. “I don’t know what the hell you were thinking. I’ve told you a dozen times not to go there. I hoped that Levi at least would know better than to wander around in abandoned buildings!”

Eren sat up in bed and jerked away from her, one hand coming up to rub his ear. He looked around the small room, panic starting to rise in his chest when he realized he and his mother were the only ones there. “Wait, where’s Levi?”

Before Carla could answer, the door to the hallway opened. “I was discharged already.” Levi walked into the room, his mother Kuchel right behind him. He held out a paper bag to Eren. “Here, I brought you some clothes if you want to get dressed after the doctor is done examining you.”

“I ought to have your father examine your head while he’s at it,” Carla huffed. “Honestly, how we managed to raise a son with so little common sense…”

Kuchel’s silvery laughter cut through the room. “Oh, as if you never did anything reckless when we were teenagers.” She sat down in the empty chair next to Carla and patted her hand. “It was a freak accident that could have happened just as easily at home. The important thing is the boys are _fine_. You can stop worrying now.”

Levi sat down on the bed next to him as Kuchel and his mother talked. Eren leaned against his shoulder and dozed off until his father came in, dressed in his hospital scrubs and lab coat. Grisha examined Eren, paying special attention to his pulse and blood pressure, and then officially discharged him, saying he’d give him another checkup when he came home that evening. After he left, Eren grabbed his bag of clothes and headed into the bathroom. He changed and took care of some other business, washing his hands in the sink after. He reached to turn off the water, glancing in the mirror as he did so. He startled a little to see a second pair of eyes looking at him, but then he realized it was just Levi. Eren smiled and turned around to face him.

“Le...” Eren’s voice trailed off to a confused halt.

There was no one there.

He looked back in the mirror.

The reflection of Levi was still there, behind Eren’s shoulder, looking at him with a slight frown creasing his eyebrows. The reflection’s mouth opened, saying something, but there was no sound. Eren squinted. He was sure the Levi in the mirror was saying his name, but he couldn’t make out what else he was saying.

There was a “click” behind Eren, and the Levi in the mirror vanished. A moment later, another reflection of Levi appeared, but this one was accompanied by the flesh-and-blood version.

“What’s taking so long in here?” Levi took a long look at Eren’s face. “Hey, do you feel okay?”

Eren shook his head and smiled, trying to dispel the unpleasant feeling of disquiet creeping down his spine. “Sorry, I’m fine. I think I’m still just a little out of it. Let’s go.” Eren started to move toward the door, but Levi abruptly grabbed his shoulders and pushed him against the wall. Eren’s mouth opened in surprise, only to have Levi seal it with his own. The kiss was harder than how Levi usually kissed, almost desperate, and Eren’s eyes closed automatically, his hands fisting in the front of Levi’s t-shirt. Levi sucked Eren’s lower lip into his mouth, and Eren quietly yelped at the sharp pain as Levi nipped at it. His tongue immediately laved at the spot as if in apology, and then he let Eren go.

He took Eren’s hand and tugged him toward the door. “That was for making me worry. Come on; time to go home.”

**~~~~~**

Levi’s family lived just across the street from Eren, so when they’d gotten the call that morning, Kuchel and Carla had gone to the hospital in the same car. After they got home, Eren was standing by their car and watching Kuchel and Levi cross the street. Levi’s step-sister, Isabel, had just come flying out of their front door and launched herself at Levi when Eren felt his cellphone vibrate in his pocket.

“Hello?”

 _“….ren…..”_ The line was full of static, and Eren was barely able to hear the voice on the other end.

“Hello? You’re breaking up.”

_“Eren…”_

Eren felt his blood run cold. For a split second, the line had been clearer, and the voice on the other end was familiar. His eyes went across the street, where Levi still had his arms full of Isabel as she frowned up at him. It couldn’t be who he thought it was on the other end. It was impossible. “…Who is this?”

_“…s Lev……ren, you’re..…d..ger….”_

Across the street, Levi was mussing up Isabel’s hair as he said something to her. “Horseface, if this is your idea of a prank, it’s not funny.”

_“Er……sten……..t’s not…e”_

The family across the street went inside and shut the door.

_“Pl…s….e….careful…”_

The line went dead.


	2. Apparition

There were no more creepy phone calls over the next couple days, but Eren did keep seeing Levi's face when his boyfriend wasn't around. Always in reflective surfaces, and usually just a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. Sometimes, he would get a full look at Levi's face, most often in a proper mirror, and always the other boy was looking at him with an expression of worry. In the back of his mind, Eren knew he should tell his father what he was seeing, thinking that possibly the lightning strike had caused it, but something always held Eren back.

His dreams had gotten strange as well. It was always the same dream; every night since the accident. Eren was pushing his way through a dark forest, the skeletal branches of the trees catching in his clothes and hair, almost as if they were gripping at him with a mind of their own. He could hear Levi, desperately calling out his name, and he fought his way through the shadows toward the voice.

There was another voice in the forest with him, behind him, calling out his name as well in a persuasive tone, sliding through the air like dark velvet. It sounded like Levi, too, but there was something off, wrong about it. Eren somehow sensed that if that other voice caught up to him, it would be bad. Every night, he pushed closer and closer to the first voice, the one pleading for him, but he always woke up before he reached it. Still, it seemed like every time the dream started, he was closer to Levi than he had been before.

But the other voice slithered behind him, closer as well.

**~~~~~**

A few days after the accident, Eren headed over to Levi's house. He felt like he just had to see Levi, reassure himself that he was alright, that he was still  _there_.

Levi's step-father answered the door. "Good afternoon, Eren. Come in."

Eren nodded at the tall, red-haired man. "Thanks. Is Levi home?"

"He and Isabel are both upstairs. There's been a bit of an incident, though."

Eren shot the man a puzzled look over his shoulder as he climbed the stairs. His meaning soon became apparent when Eren followed the sound of muffled crying to Isabel's room.

She was sitting on her bed, face buried in Levi's shoulder as he wrapped one arm around her and awkwardly patted her back. Behind them, a light breeze fluttered the curtains of the open window.

"What happened?"

Levi nodded over at the birdcage in the corner. "Pipsqueak got out."

"Oh." Well, that explained why Isabel was upset. She'd had the little blue and white parakeet for six years now, ever since she'd been given him for her tenth birthday.

Isabel burst into a fresh set of tears. "I w-was sure I closed Pip's c-cage this morning!"

Eren sat down next to Levi. "It might not have latched all the way. I'm sure he'll come back if you leave the window open; he knows where his food is." 

"Yeah, he'll be back when he's hungry. It's not like he's smart enough to find his own food." As Levi spoke, Eren found his gaze drawn to a small smudge of dark red on the corner of Levi's lip.

Isabel pushed away from her brother to glare at him. "That's a horrible thing to say!" She stood up and stomped out of the room. "I'm gonna go look outside for him again."

Levi sighed and leaned back. He noticed Eren staring at him and lifted an eyebrow. "What?"

Eren crooked his finger toward his own mouth. "You've got a little something..."

"Oh." Levi grabbed a tissue from Isabel's nightstand and wiped his lips with it. "Mom made raspberry tarts this morning. There's some left downstairs if you want one."

"Nah, I'm good." Eren stood up, and left the room, Levi following behind. They crossed the hall to Levi's room, and Levi shut the door behind them.

Almost immediately, Levi was crowding against Eren, steering him back until they both tumbled down onto the bed. Eren automatically spread his knees further apart to accommodate Levi where he sprawled comfortably between them. Their lips met together in a lazy kiss, and Eren brought his hands up to tangle in Levi's hair and scratch gently along his undercut. Levi's own hands trailed down Eren's chest and sides before sliding up under the hem of Eren's t-shirt. Then Levi started undoing the button of Eren's shorts, and he reached out to grab Levi's wrists, stopping him.

"Whoa, Levi!" Eren hissed. "Your parents are right downstairs! Izzy could be back any minute! _Your door doesn't lock_!"

Levi didn't show any sign of slowing down, his lips moving down to nibble against Eren's jaw. "Come on, you can be quiet, can't you?"

"You  _know_ I can't." Levi's hands twisted out of his grip, fingers dipping into the waistband of Eren's pants. Exasperated, Eren put his hands on Levi's shoulders and shoved him sideways, off of him. "I said no!"

For a fraction of a second, Eren thought he saw anger cross Levi's face, but it was gone so quickly he wondered if he had imagined it. Levi sighed and flopped back onto the mattress to stare up at the ceiling. "Suit yourself." He lay there for a moment before getting up and crossing over to his desk. "I've got some work to do anyway; I have to get my resume ready to find a job in Sina when school starts."

Eren stared at Levi's back, open-mouthed, as Levi booted up his computer and proceeded to ignore him. "What, seriously? I don't want to fuck, so you're kicking me out?!"

"No, of course not; I just need to get this done. Iz already interrupted me earlier when she started bawling. You can stay if you want."

Eren ran a hand through his hair. "Nah, it's okay. I'll go out and see if I can help Izzy find Pipsqueak." Eren heaved himself off the bed and walked over to stand behind Levi. "I'll call you later, okay?"

Levi made an affirmative noise, and Eren leaned over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

As he straightened up, his eyes strayed to the collar of Levi's shirt, drawn there, perhaps, by a flash of color.

Trapped under the fabric was a single tiny, bright blue feather.

**~~~~~**

That night, it was hard for Eren to fall asleep. His mind kept going back to that afternoon. Levi hadn't been acting like himself, and Eren felt a cold ball of uneasiness in his stomach whenever he thought about it.

Finally, he managed to drift off, but his dreams weren't much comfort. It seemed like that shadowy presence was closer to him now, and Eren found himself running through the dark forest, branches whipping against his face and scratching him as he pushed his way through. Suddenly, just when he felt like the presence was going to catch up to him, he stumbled into a clearing. It wasn't an escape, however. Stretching across the middle was a wall of mirrored glass, reflecting the forest behind him and his own flushed, panting face.

"Eren..."

Eren heard the voice again, the second one, the one that wasn't Levi. He spun around, scanning the forest, his back against the cool glass. There was nowhere for him to run, now. A shadow within the shadows of the trees seemed to move on its own, drawing closer. Eren felt his mouth go dry as it resolved itself into a familiar silhouette. "Lev-"

Before the shadow could completely step out into the clearing, a pair of hands wrapped around Eren's chest and yanked him backwards,  _through_ the mirror.

Eren thought he heard a howl of rage just before he was surrounded by blinding light.

**~~~~~**

"Ouch! Fuck!" Eren abruptly woke up as his back hit the floor. Which hurt like hell; his bed wasn't that far off the ground, but the floor was concrete underneath the carpeting, due to the fact that his room was in the basement. He lay there for a few moments, willing his racing heart to slow as he stared at the sliver of blue sky visible through the casement window. Finally, he sat up, rubbing his face as he chased away the cobwebs of his dream.

A knock sounded on his door. "Eren, are you okay? I heard a shout."

"Yeah, Mom, I'm fine."

As Eren caught another glimpse of Levi's face staring at him from his dresser mirror, he wished that answer didn't feel like such a lie.

**~~~~~**

Levi ended up calling him later that day and inviting him out for ice cream along with Isabel and Farlan. Whatever had happened between them yesterday, Levi seemed completely fine today. He let Isabel load up her sundae with an indulgent smile, and he and Farlan talked about their plans for the move to Sina while, under the table, he casually hooked his ankle around Eren's. On the walk home, Isabel skipped slightly ahead of the rest of them, as she excitedly talked about what movies she wanted to see that summer before Levi and Farlan left. She reached the crosswalk first and started to walk out into it.

"Iz, be careful!" Levi called out after her.

She turned her head and stuck her tongue out at him, "I got the signal. I'm not a little kid, you know!"

There was a screech of tires, and Isabel's head whipped around.

A car was approaching, far too fast to stop for the red light, and Isabel froze as she watched it barrel straight at her.

The three boys ran toward her. Farlan, who'd been closest, reached her first and yanked her back, rolling onto the sidewalk as the car squealed past them.

"Owww..." Isabel sat up from Farlan's arms, rubbing her neck. "What th' hell was wrong with him? Good thing you were here, Far."

There wasn't any answer.

"Far? Farlan?!"

**~~~~~**

One ambulance ride and an X-ray later, and it turned out Farlan had a mild concussion from hitting his head on the curb when he landed and a broken leg from the car clipping him. He'd also been unable to go up to Sina the next day with Erwin, Mike, Levi, and Hanji to look at the house that Erwin's parents were going to be renting to the five of them. He and Eren both watched Mike's van pull away, Eren standing in the yard and Farlan seated on the porch with his leg in its plaster cast propped up in front of him. They were quiet for a few minutes, and then Farlan broke the silence. "Hey, Eren, has Levi seemed a little...off to you lately?"

Eren looked at him in surprise, but before he could answer, Kuchel and Isabel came out with a pitcher of lemonade and some glasses.

Farlan shook his head. "Ah, never mind. Probably just imagining things."

**~~~~~**

Three nights later, the day before the group was supposed to come home, Eren was about to head to bed when his phone started ringing.

"Hello?"

Instead of an answer, there was a weird, garbled noise on the other end. A cold feeling of dread washed over Eren as he wondered if this was going to be another cryptic phone call, but then a voice finally said, "Hello. Eren?"

"Hanji?" Eren's apprehension did not ease, however. Hanji's voice was thick and strained; it sounded like they'd been crying. "Where are you? What's wrong?"

"We're all at the hospital in Sina. There's been an accident."

"What?!" Eren was already digging through his drawers for clean clothing. "What happened?! Is Levi-"

"No, no, Levi's fine. He wasn't hurt," Hanji quickly reassured him.

"Then who...?"

"It's Erwin." 


	3. Escalation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From this chapter onward, the **Character Death warning** is relevant.

It had been a freak accident. The four seniors were cleaning the house that morning, when they decided to head into downtown for lunch and to explore the city. It was windy that day, and they'd been walking on the other side of the street from where a crane was lifting a large pane of plate glass into place on the side of a high-rise. An unusually strong gust of wind had caught the glass, and the cable holding it snapped, sending it spinning to the ground well outside of the taped-off construction zone. Erwin had gotten hit, and the doctors ended up amputating his mangled right arm. They said, later, that if the glass had hit him just a few inches to the left, he likely would have died.

The others all came home, sans Erwin, late the next evening. Everyone looked exhausted, and the conversation was subdued, so after helping Levi carry his bag upstairs, Eren said goodbye and headed home for the night. He hadn't had any dreams since the last nightmare a few days ago, so Eren fell asleep fairly quickly after he went to bed.

And then he promptly opened his eyes to see the leaves of a tree swaying above his head.

"Son of a bitch."

Eren sat up and looked around cautiously. The dark forest was gone; instead, he was sitting in a field of tall grass, bending and rippling in the wind as the sun shone down from a bright, blue sky. He shut his eyes and breathed in the scent of green plants and warm earth. If this was a dream, it was nicer than the last one. There was something peaceful about this place - almost nostalgic.

"Eren."

Eren's eyes snapped open to see a familiar figure kneeling next to him. "Levi?"

Levi's hand came up, tentatively cupping his cheek. "Are you alright? You're not hurt?"

"I'm fine."

"Oh, thank God." The next thing he knew, Levi's face was pressed into his shoulder as his he wrapped his arms around Eren's back. He was shaking.

Eren hugged Levi back. "What's wrong?"

"I don't  _know_." Levi pulled back to look into his face. "The last thing I remember is going into that room at the Langnar place, and then I was here. I've been watching you through the mirror, and I tried to call you once, but I don't think it worked."

"The mirror...?" Eren looked over his shoulder to see a mirror standing in the field. It looked exactly like the one that had been in the old bedroom. He turned back to Levi. "But what do you mean, you've been here ever since? I  _just_ talked to you tonight, when you got back from Sina."

"Eren." Levi's voice was tight, and he stared intently into Eren's eyes. "That wasn't  _me_."

**~~ ~~~**

"I don't know why you're interested in researching the Langnar Estate all of a sudden," Armin sighed, dumping an armful of microfilm printouts on the table. Marco reached over and grabbed part of the stack, rifling through the copies of obituaries, newspaper clippings, and land transfer records. Armin put his hands on his hips and glared at Eren. "I would've thought you had enough of that place. You better not be planning on going back."

Eren shook his head. "Nah. Just..." He trailed off and bit his lip, wondering how much to share. "Some weird stuff happened, and there's all the rumors of it being haunted, but everyone's always got a different story why. But there must have been  _something_ to start the rumors in the first place." He grabbed his own portion of the stack and started rifling through. "Thanks for helping me with this, guys."

"It's no problem, Eren." Marco smiled. "This stuff can be pretty overwhelming trying to wade through it yourself."

Armin pulled the rest of the papers over to himself. "Besides, if we didn't, we'd probably find you five hours from now completely distracted and reading a book on 18th century warships or something."

"Oh, that was  _one_ time."

**~~~~~**

They didn't find much, but what they did find chilled Eren to the bone.

There was a newspaper article dated June 24th, 1933. It detailed how police had responded to a panicked call from the cook. Inside, they found what the paper described as a bloodbath. Dr. Jakob Langnar and his wife were discovered dead, hacked into pieces. Their eighteen year old daughter, Ilse, was found standing over them, ax in hand, a manic smile on her face, and dress saturated in their blood.

A picture was included in the paper, after the bodies and Ilse had been taken away. The three boys bent their heads over the grainy, black and white photo. Eren's eyes were drawn to the large window behind the scene, opening onto a small balcony. He wasn't sure, because they hadn't gone in any other rooms, but it looked like it could have been the same bedroom Eren and Levi had stumbled into that night.

Marco pointed at a blurry decoration on the wall. "It's hard to tell, but that looks like a tomahawk. They're usually displayed in pairs, so why would they only have one?"

"Maybe the other one is the 'ax' used in the murder. Or maybe they only had one. It says in the article that Dr. Langnar was an archaeologist; he could have taken it from a site. They did that a lot back then."

"Stole it, you mean, " Marco muttered. He pointed at a different part of the picture. "That black stuff all over the floor is probably blood, but look at this bit. Doesn't it look like someone's drawn a pattern with it? Like...a glyph, or something."

Armin pulled the printout closer to himself, his head tilting to the side as he squinted. "You're right; it does look deliberate."

Eren leaned closer. "Do you think she drew it after she killed them?"

"Hmm..." Armin's eyes narrowed in thought. "No, I don't think so. See? The other blood looks like it's partially obliterating it. I think it was drawn first."

Eren read the article underneath the picture. "Oh, there's an interview with the cook. 'I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, I don't, but the doctor and missus was always a bit strange. Figured it came with his job, you know - poking around bones all day would make anyone a little touched. They was chanting tonight, weren't the first time neither, but then this awful screaming started and I called the police straight away. It didn't sound human, it didn't.' ...Okay, now that's creepy."

"'Police report there were signs that chunks of the victims flesh had been torn off and...'" Marco read, his brows furrowed together, "'and eaten by Miss Langnar.' Gross."

"Typical sensationalist journalism," Armin scoffed.

Following the murders, it seemed that Ilse had been committed to an insane asylum. Marco managed to dig up patient records, and the three of them found out that after Ilse's arrival, the asylum had experienced an unusually high rate of suicides and unexplained deaths. The increase just as mysteriously stopped five years later, when Ilse's own death, along with several other patients, was recorded. The cause showed up in another newspaper article, which described a fire breaking out in the high-security wing of the asylum. The paper reported that all patients in that area were locked in their rooms at night, and, as a result, had been unable to escape the blaze.

After that, there were several records of the Langnar property changing hands over the next fifty years or so, often multiple times a year. Then, in 1982, the property was registered to a Uri Reiss. As well, there were several building permits listing the mansion's address issued at about the same time. After that, everything seemed to be quiet for several years, until the local papers began to take notice of several disappearances in the area.

The disappearances soon became front page news, as speculation grew that there was a serial killer operating in the area. A joint task force with the FBI was announced, and eventually in 1991, the killer was found, along with several remains stored on his property.

It was Uri Reiss.

"Oh, God, the articles are talking about cannibalism again." Marco was turning faintly green under his freckles.

"Here, I'll read the rest." Armin took the page from him.

Uri had been sentenced to death. Prison records were a bit harder to trace, but once again, like with Ilse, the prison Uri had been housed in experienced a spike in the number of deaths, only ending when Uri's execution was carried out nearly ten years later.

There were only two more obituaries associated with the Langnar mansion. An Alma Reiss in 2004, and her husband, Rod Reiss, the following year.

"Ten years ago would have been about the time the mansion was abandoned." Armin read through the short obituary. "It says here they had two daughters. The youngest was our age. Do you remember her at all?"

Eren shook his head. "I didn't know there were even any kids out there; they all kept to themselves. The only transfer student I remember is Christa, but her last name is Lenz, and she moved here in sixth grade. We never had anyone that transferred out, either."

Marco stretched, making his shoulders pop. "Well, I don't think we're going to find anything else. It's no wonder everyone says the place is haunted though. I think I'm going to have nightmares about this stuff."

Armin looked over his shoulder. "It's almost closing time; we should probably get going. If Ms. Brzenska glares at us any harder, I think she'll melt a hole through her glasses.

Marco grabbed his keys. "Hey, why don't we grab some pizza, and then I'll give you guys a ride home? You can put your bikes in the back of my truck."

**~~~~~**

The streetlights were lit up when they left the restaurant, the sun having long finished setting. Armin's house was the closest one, so they dropped him off first. Feeling suddenly nervous, Eren had thrust the printouts they'd made at him as he climbed out of Marco's pickup. For some reason, he didn't want to have them at his house where Levi might find them. Armin had just raised an eyebrow at him before taking the papers, and Eren hopped out to grab Armin's bike for him and wheeled it up his driveway. They said goodnight, and Marco drove the two blocks remaining to Eren's house.

"Thank's for the ride, Marco. And for helping me at the library."

Marco grinned and ruffled Eren's hair. "No problem. It was actually kind of fun. Although, next time, maybe we should pick a lighter subject, yeah?"

Eren grinned back. "Yeah." He climbed out and got his bike, waving goodbye to Marco one last time as he headed to the garage to put it away. As he turned to leave, he jumped in shock as a shadow moved in the open doorway.

His hand came up to clutch his chest. "Jesus Christ, Levi! You startled me!"

Levi stepped toward him, the shadows across his face shifting as he passed through the light shining in from the window. "I thought you said you were going to the library with Armin. So why did you come home with Marco?"

Eren shrugged. "Marco was at the library when we got there, and he ended up helping us. It was dark when we left, so he gave us a ride home."

"You two seemed like you were getting awfully cozy together." Levi was right in front of Eren now, and Eren took an involuntary step backwards, bumping up against the wall of the garage.

"Marco's always like that. The fuck is your problem all of a sudden?"

"My problem?" Levi growled out, and his hand clamped around Eren's shoulder, pinning him to the wall. "My problem is that you're  _mine_. No one should be touching you but me."

The uneasiness Eren had been feeling disappeared, overcome by a blaze of anger. He opened his mouth to tell Levi off, but his words were muffled before they began when Levi's free hand wrenched Eren's head down and Levi's lips covered his in a possessive, forceful kiss.

Eren froze in shock for a split second, and then he was jerking away. Levi's hands tightened their grips, and Eren shoved at his chest. "Stop! You're hurting me!" Levi let go of him and staggered back, and the two of them stared at each other for a moment. Eren brought his arm up to scrub the back of his hand against his mouth. "You don't fucking own me, Levi. What the hell is wrong with you?" In the back of his mind, Eren could hear the warning all over again -  _that's not me_ \- and his voice went quiet as he said, "You're not acting like yourself." _  
_

Levi looked down, his expression hidden in darkness. "Sorry. I'm just..." He sighed. "I'm stressed out. Going to college, the move, Farlan's and Erwin's accidents... I shouldn't be taking it out on you."

"Yeah, well, sorry doesn't always fix everything, Levi."

"I know." Levi looked up, gaze locked on Eren's face. "I  _know_. Look, let's just...start over. We can meet for breakfast tomorrow, maybe go for a walk through the park and feed the ducks - all that sappy, couple shit you love."

Eren hesitated. Part of him wanted to tell Levi to shove his "sappy, couple shit" up his ass. But his mind kept going back to the articles he'd looked up that day. He knew it was completely irrational, but part of him couldn't shake the feeling that his dreams were real, that the person standing in front of him wasn't Levi, maybe wasn't even human. And if that was the case, would it be better to distance himself from him? Or would it be better to not risk angering him and go along? Was he in danger either way? What about his family? What about  _Levi's_ family?

Eren took a deep breath, trying to force himself to calm down. "Alright," he agreed. "I'll call you when I get up, okay?"

**~~~~~**

Breakfast the next day was almost disappointingly normal. Levi and Eren met and went down to Rosie's diner, Levi teased Eren about the huge amount of syrup he poured on his pancakes, and they talked about nothing in particular, as if the fight had never happened. By the time they were walking back from the park, Eren had tangled his fingers together with Levi's, and he was willing to write off the dreams as nothing more than, well, dreams.

As they neared the town center Eren looked up to see Jean and Marco leaving the coffee shop. Jean walked on ahead, but Marco spotted Eren and Levi and raised his hand to wave.

Just as Eren started to wave back, he heard a loud squealing sound. His heart went up to his throat as the horrible memory of Farlan's accident replayed in his mind. Eren was rooted to the spot, watching as an SUV slid out of control around the corner. The driver was desperately turning the wheel back and forth, trying to get the vehicle to straighten out.

It didn't. As if everything was moving in slow motion, the SUV's tires hit the curb, and it jumped onto the sidewalk.

Right in front of Marco.

There was a horrific crash, and time seemed to speed back up as Marco crumpled, the right side of his face and chest  pinned against the cracked stone wall by the wrecked vehicle.

Blood was pooling down onto the sidewalk. A lot of blood. Some detached corner of Eren's mind thought,  _too much blood_.

Eren could hear screaming. He wasn't sure if it was Jean across the street, who was being held back by some bystanders that were trying to clear the area around the accident, or if it was himself.

At one point during the commotion, Eren looked over at Levi, and a spike of dread turned his veins to ice.

Not because Levi was staring intently at the scene across the street.

But because he was doing so with a smile curving his lips.


	4. Aberration

It felt like the whole town turned out for Marco's funeral, except for Erwin who was still in the hospital, recovering. Eren had made it through the funeral somehow, mumbling his condolences to a teary-eyed Mrs. Bodt. He'd gone home shortly after it was over, avoiding Jean even though the other boy was an absolute wreck.

He didn't want to draw Levi's attention to anyone else, after all.

That night, he dreamed he was in the field again, with what he was quickly becoming to consider the "real" Levi. He'd cried into Levi's shoulder until his eyes were raw and red, and he'd woken up that morning with a wet pillow and a renewed determination to find out just what had happened that night at the mansion.

Eren had started by getting the printouts from Armin and settling in at a booth at Rosie's with a cup of coffee. He found himself staring at the photo accompanying Alma Reiss's obituary, one of a delicate-looking blonde woman. His eyes flicked over to the text, and Eren realized with a start that something was wrong.

He shuffled through the stack to Rod Reiss's obituary and compared the two, and he realized what it was. Alma's write-up had mentioned a surviving son along with the two daughters, Frieda and Historia. Rod's made no mention of the boy at all.

Eren started going through the more recent articles in earnest, but there was nothing. No other obituaries, no mention of missing children. It was as if their son had just vanished. A thrill of certainty crept down Eren's spine. Somehow, the Reiss family was connected to whatever had happened to Levi, and there were two survivors who might be able to tie the threads together for him, if he could only find them.

But he couldn't. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find any mention of them. He might have made more progress with Armin there to help him, but Eren wasn't going to risk another "accident." Eren dropped the papers back down on the table and rubbed his face. "Where are you, Historia?"

There was a crash, and Eren's head snapped up to see the waitress, his friend Christa, staring at him with wide blue eyes, a shattered coffee cup at her feet. For several ling moments, neither of them spoke, and then Christa opened her mouth. "Where did you hear that name?"

**~~~~~**

After Christa's shift was over, they met up. Christa had listened to Eren explain all the odd happenings lately, although he left out his dreams and the glimpses of Levi's face in mirrors, and then she'd told him a story of her own.

When she was very small, her family had moved out to the property that they'd inherited from her uncle. Historia's mother had been frail, and Rod had thought the country air would be good for her health. But shortly after the move, Frieda's personality had started to change.

"She was my half-sister, and ten years older than me, but she'd always looked after me." Christa and Eren had gone to Christa's house, and they were both sitting on the floor in her bedroom. Christa looked down at her hands where they twisted together in her lap. "She'd start to have fits of anger, and sometimes she'd be really controlling. She yelled at me if I wandered too far away from the house."

At the same time, Alma's health had started to worsen, and she became weaker and weaker. At the end, she became gripped in a delirium, yelling that there was a demon in the house, and forbidding either of her daughters from entering her bedroom. She had passed away soon after that.

Then the accidents had started happening, and one-by-one, the staff had begun to quit. The ones that didn't quit had disappeared in the night, and Rod had just written it off as them leaving without notice, ignoring that they had left all their belongings, including IDs and money, behind. Until something happened that he couldn't ignore anymore.

Historia had woken up in the middle of the night, thirsty, and had gotten up to get a glass of water from the kitchen. When she'd reached the bottom of the stairs, she'd seen Frieda kneeling on the floor. Their brother, Dirk, was laying on the floor next to her, with his head cradled in his older sister's lap and his eyes starting glassily up at the ceiling, a thread of dark liquid trailing from the corner of his mouth. Frieda had giggled and looked up at Historia. "Poor little thing. Fell over the banister and broke his neck." She giggled again and ran her finger through the substance leaking from his mouth before licking it off.

Historia had screamed, drawing there father to the scene. The next thing she knew, Frieda was taken into her room and chained to the bed, and Dirk's body was taken away. The next day, two men dressed like priests had shown up and gone into Frieda's room with her father.

"I didn't understand what was going on then, but I know now that they must have performed an exorcism. Something went wrong, though, and Father died during it. After that, I was placed in a foster home for a little while, and then the Lenz's adopted me." Christa wrapped her arms around her knees.

"What happened to your sister?"

**~~~~~**

Frieda was the youngest patient in the nursing home. She turned her head when they came in the room, but her eyes as they tracked Christa's movements were blank and glassy, and the hand that Christa picked up and stroked was limp.

"She doesn't speak anymore, or really react to anything," Christa explained as she continued to hold her sister's hand. "She does whatever the nurses tell her to do, and that's about it."

Eren was really only half listening to her. The rest of his attention was taken by the  _other_ Frieda in the room.

She was standing next to the bed, her mouth open as if she was screaming although Eren couldn't hear anything. She was pounding violently on the chest of the Frieda on the bed and pressing against it, but her movements seemed to have no force, not even enough to stir the sheets. Christa didn't seem to notice her, not even when she clutched at Christa's arm as if she were pleading with her.

As they left, Eren saw another glimpse of Levi in the mirror. He was staring at both Friedas with a troubled frown on his face.

**~~~~~**

"Eren, I figured it out. I know what you have to do."

They were standing under the tree in Eren's dreamscape. Eren looked at Levi, hope starting to stir in his chest, but Levi avoided his eyes, his face twisted into a grimace.

"You aren't going to like it."

**~~~~~**

Eren pushed open the door and stepped back into the room where everything had happened.

Something crunched under his shoe, and he looked down to see shards of glass scattered across the floor, sprayed outwards from the now empty frame of the mirror.

He walked to the middle of the room and bent down to pick up a large, triangular piece of the mirror. As he straightened up, the door behind him creaked open again. "I can't believe you only now realized you lost your fucking necklace while we were here." Footsteps crossed the floor and a hand clamped down on his shoulder. "Did you find it?"

"Yeah..." Eren grit his teeth. Not giving himself time to think about it, he spun around and thrust the glass he was holding forward.

Right into Levi's chest.

The back edge of the glass sliced into Eren's palm and the pain almost made him drop it. He almost dropped it again when he saw the shocked expression on Levi's face.

_What have I done?_

But then, Levi...changed. His irises turned black, and the color spread out until both his eyes were dark voids from lid to lid. Levi's mouth creaked open, revealing too many too sharp teeth. "What...are...you..."

His words cut off in a bubbling sigh, and blackness started oozing into the reflection showing in the bloody mirror shard embedded into his chest, at if someone had spilled ink into a still pool of water.

Levi collapsed onto the floor, and Eren went down with him, falling to his knees beside him. Levi's eyes were their normal color now, staring unseeing up at the ceiling. Eren gripped Levi's hand in both of his, ignoring the pain in his palm and the spreading pool of blood that was soaking into his jeans.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't want to. I'm so, so sorry." Eren dissolved into hiccuping sobs.

He'd screamed and fought when Levi had told Eren he had to kill him. In the end Levi had taken Eren's hand and spoken quietly.

_"I'm already dead. I died that night in the mansion. But if it's not stopped, that thing is going to keep hurting and killing people I care about while it wears my face. Please, Eren."_

"Eren."

Eren looked up. Levi was standing there, next to his own corpse. The sunlight shining in through the window appeared to shine through Levi as well, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air all around him, and yet he seemed solid enough when he reached down and pulled the black piece of mirror from his body's chest. He smiled sadly at Eren.

"Thank you."

Even as he said it, he faded away, taking the mirror with him. Eren stayed where he was until the light through the window started to turn orange with sunset, and then he dialed a number on his phone.

"911, what's your emergency?"

**~~~~~~~~~~**

**~~~~~**

 

 "What about this patient, Dr. Pixis?"

Petra had paused to read the nameplate on a door:  _Jaeger, Eren_.

"Ah, this one is a sad case. About two years ago he had a psychotic break and ended up killing another young man during the episode. He's quiet now, spends most of the time he isn't in therapy sleeping. But, I'm confident that with time and patience, we'll be able to help him."

Petra looked through the small window into the room at the tousled brown hair that was all that was visible above the blankets before they moved on.

**~~~~~**

"You're not real, you know? None of this is real. Everything weird that was happening was just in my own head."

They were standing in the field under the tree again. Levi's face crumpled, and he threw his arms around Eren. "I'm sorry, Eren. I'll fix this. I promise I'll fix this." He pulled away and placed his palm against Eren's cheek. It was warm, and Eren closed his eyes, wishing desperately that Levi's warmth was real, that none of the terrible events two years ago had ever happened.

"Levi..."

"Shh. I have to go now. I'm not sure for how long, but I'll be back. I'll be back, okay?" He leaned up and kissed Eren's cheek. "I love you."

And then he was gone.


End file.
